Sexing Silver Appleyard Ducks

[CayugaJana]

How much space do you have?

 

[harmonymw]

How much space do you have?

Couple acres. Fenced part is about a 1/4 acre. Duck house is just a large dog house, though. I’d have to move them into a nearby shed like we did with the chickens.

 

[CayugaJana]

I would say you need more room than a large dog house if you have 10 ducks. And if they can free range during the day, it may not be too bad. But I don’t know if you are planning on sharing the 1/4 acre with the chickens? If so, it might be too crowded.

 

[CayugaJana]

I have 12 ducks on 1/2 an acre and it isn’t bad at all. But I don’t have any chickens.

 

[harmonymw]

Yes the birds all share range space

 

[NinjaChicken617]

Yes. In Sharon. Super nice lady.

I know this thread is old but I just found it, and I'm sure you've long-since assigned the correct pronoun to your ducks. That super nice lady in Sharon is one of my BFFs. She gifted me with 3 silver appleyards in January. She was certain that she was giving me 2 girls and a boy. About 10 days after we got them home, when they were about 20 weeks old one of the girls' heads turned green. I swear it happened overnight. So how did we solve the problem of 2 drakes and only one duck? A smart person would have rehomed one of the drakes, but no. We instead got 4 more sexed girls from a hatchery. The babies are 6 weeks old now and heading outside this weekend. All I can say is that they better all turn out to be girls or I'm dropping them all off in my friend's back yard while she's at work and letting her sort it out (no I won't because I am completely in love with them all).

 

[Isaac 0]

They are gorgeous!

 

[maruadventurer]

I know this thread is old but I just found it, and I'm sure you've long-since assigned the correct pronoun to your ducks. That super nice lady in Sharon is one of my BFFs. She gifted me with 3 silver appleyards in January. /Snip

Ya know, the FWS does sexing of mallards based on wing plumage for wildlife management. It might be worth SA owners if we could figure out a way to do the same at the 6-10wk stage. It might not even be possible, but worth the try.

Now for me, its not really a problem. I DO eat the excess males being the dastardly carnivore that I am. Works fine when its a spring hatch. A fall hatch is a different matter. To get to the size I desire means I have to over winter them which means my feed bill goes up compared to the spring as I free range mine on our acreage.

One last observation. When I *really* have an excess of males even for me I gift them. We have Chinese neighbors who really appreciate them. I know the drake's fate but I have happy neighbors.